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Cutting Presidents Out of Coins: Art or Anarchy?

And seriously, how did they do that?

"How did they do that?" Yeah, that's what we said, too. Using an unspecified "saw blade," a friend of Imgur user pfefferminzetea has cut the famous profiles of American presidents out of their coins. According to US Code Section 333, "Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association […] shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both," although Neatorama, who published the above image earlier today, as well as an eBay shop called Cut Coin Store, allege that cutting coins is not illegal, except when the intent is to defraud.

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Now, the resulting Reddit thread is less focused on the matter of legality than they are the actual coin-cutter used to create these silhouettes. "I'm going with hand cut," says PM_ME_YOUR_SUBWOOFER. "Correct answer: wire EDM," argues VDuBivore, linking to this video of an Accutex AU-500i.

So, jewellers saw or machine-made? Art or crime? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

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